Video update: Kostopoulos suspended 3 games

Canadiens forward Tom Kostopoulos has been suspended three games for his hit of Toronto’s Mike Van Ryn Saturday night.

He will be unavailable to the team tomorrow night vs. Ottawa, Thursday in Boston and back home Saturday vs. Philadelphia.

From NHL.com: Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Kostopoulos is considered a repeat offender, having been suspended one game last season for a fight, and will lose $32,926.83 from his salary. As a repeat offender, the salary forfeit is based on games in the season (82) rather than the number of days (186). The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

A statement from Kostopoulos released by the Canadiens:

"First and foremost, I sincerely regret the injuries suffered by Mike Van Ryn. This is an unfortunate turn of events. I was just trying to get in on the forecheck and get the puck. I didn’t anticipate him turning and couldn’t stop.

"I was trying to finish my check and obviously it did not end up well. I never intend on injuring another player. I feel bad. I hope he is going to be all right and resume playing as quickly as possible."

That was brilliant otter649,freaking perfect the way you’ve mixed fact with fiction,lol…Ladepresse,ha,ha,ha.Thanks man I needed that.
Now for you other fans on the Tom the Bomb thang,3 DAYS ..NO BIG DEAL,heck Tom’s sat out that before and that what you should get for that mistake,makes me wonder how many games you get for accidental murder,what 5 games? geeses.
And as for this high school tit for tat bullshit,O Howleg this,C Neil that etc…..STFKUP YER SOUNDING LIKE MARLIES FANS ,which thank the God’s we’re not,lol

believe half of what you see and none of what you read…
learn to find the truth between the lines…
and accept that there are persons behind the curtain pulling all the strings, all in the name of money….thats the drug.

Does Carey Price want out of Montreal? Is he looking to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Roy and demand that he be traded? After the pounding he took Saturday night against the Leafs, who would blame him? In an exclusive interview with LaDePresse, Price was reluctant to go on the record, but he was clear about one thing: he doesn’t much like what he’s seeing in front of him.

“All the pundits said we’d have a good team this year, and in some ways we do. But Saturday night’s game with the Leafs shone the light on some glaring deficiencies that we have, and I don’t know that there’s any plan to correct them.”

Asked to identify those deficiencies, Price was circumspect.

“Oh, I don’t know. I guess if you look at things statistically, you might get some clues. Like us being outshot 40-20 by Toronto. Or the fact that Toronto got three goalie interference calls in the space of 10 minutes. Things like that might point to a problem with our defense, but I’m just a kid from western B.C., what do I know?”

Price has reason to be concerned. The Canadiens have been routinely outshot this year and haven’t even had to play many of the league’s top teams yet. The team has no bona fide checking line to go up against opponents’ more dangerous forwards. The team’s defense is relatively small in size and shallow in depth. And its scoring and power play are not what anyone expected them to be. Plans for a 25th Stanley Cup parade are most definitely on hold.

“I’m not saying I’m going to leave in mid-game and march up to George Gillette’s suite and demand an immediate trade or anything,” Price said, “but if any of you press guys have his cell phone number, I’d like to keep it handy.”

What would help keep Price in Montreal? Are there any specific things he’d like to see the team address? There are plenty.

“Well, for one thing,” he said, “I’d really like it if we had some defensemen who could, you know, play defense. When I think of the word defense, I think of forts, cannons, impenetrable walls, boiling oil. Our defensemen are more like those little gnats we have out in B.C. that buzz around and try their best to annoy you but don’t really amount to anything.

“If possible, I’d also like to spend a little less time underneath opposition forwards who’ve crashed into me, sent me flying into the net, and have wound up on top of me, breathing their garlic breath in my face. Five times that happened Saturday night – though it was only called on them three of those occasions – and nobody on my team seemed to care. Where I come from, we stick up for our own better than that.”

Phone calls to Canadiens GM Bob Gainey were not returned by press time, but we did manage to reach the team’s coach, Guy Carbonneau, who was kind enough to respond to our questions while being fitted for some new suits at Moore’s. In Carbonneau’s mind, Price’s complaints are not completely without merit.

“I wondered how long Carey was going to stand for getting knocked over like that,” Carbonneau said with a chuckle. “Wider pinstripes, please… Oh, and I’m not a bit surprised that he’d like to see our defense strengthened. You guys in the press don’t get to see the welts and bruises this kid has, but those of us in the locker room do. He may be 20, but he has the body of a 40 year-old veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. Charcoal! I said charcoal! Not verdigris!”

Asked if he planned to play backup netminder Jaroslav Halak more often in order to get Price out of the line of fire, Carbonneau sounded unsure. “I might, but I probably won’t. I mean, if it means losing Carey, then we’ll probably put Jaro in there more. But Carey can’t have it both ways. He can’t tell me that he wants to play every night, and then gripe when they light him up for 6 goals just because his defense decides to go tour the CN Tower.”

Price’s fellow players were reluctant to comment on the young netminder’s complaints, but a few agreed to comment off the record. One of the Canadiens’ larger defensemen (a fellow with a professed fetish for purses) said: “I don’t know what he’s complaining about. The guy makes more than three times what I make and he’s younger than I am. When he stinks the place out, nobody’s on GoHabs.com saying he should be sent to the minors. But all I have to do is trip over a skate lace and they all want my head. If I were him, I’d pipe down and just concentrate on doing a better job between the pipes.”

A veteran forward took a more philosophical view of things, saying: “Carey is a young player. In time he will learn, as I did learn, that no one can give 100 percent every game, every week. The hockey season is just too long. Some nights, the whole team will try. Other nights, just half the team will try. And some nights, like this Toronto game, only he will try. We players never know what schedule our teammates are on. Is it their night to try or are they on an off-night when they are not planning to try? It can be very confusing, especially to a younger player. Take me, for example. Even though it is a contract year, and I will become free agent at end of season, I still do not try every night, much less every shift. This would be madness, not to mention tiring. It is one of the most important lessons I have tried to instill into the minds of my young protégés from Belarus.”

Fans of the young netminder are hoping that Price stays around a while — at least long enough to bring the club its 25th Stanley Cup. “Price is a god, said 30 Nilan, a poster at the Gohabs.com website. “ It would be nice if he’d drop the gloves once in a while and defend himself, but other than that I have no problem with the guy.”

Only time will tell how long Carey Price is destined to wear the bleu, blanche et rouge. But one thing does appear certain: the Canadiens are going to have to do a better job of protecting their young star if they want him to stay around for long.

“Carey Price has won a Canada Cup, he’s won a Calder Cup — he just used to winning,” said another Habs player (who happens to wear an extra C on his sweater). “He came here because we drafted him and he had to, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to win. He does want to win — very badly. And if he doesn’t think that he can win here, he may certainly want to consider going someplace where he can win. Personally, I don’t understand that point of view at all. I’ve been with this team for quite a while and have always been down with the fact that we would never win. But I guess it’s different strokes for different folks. Come to think of it, though, if Carey does demand a trade to a contender, maybe he’ll put in a good word for me! When you get right down to it, there’s nothing really wrong with playing for a good team and winning, I guess. Is there?”

Where would Price want to go if he left the Habs? He’s not saying, but this much is clear: it won’t be Russia’s KHL.

“Never,” said Price. “Not in a million years. I’d play professional roller hockey before I’d go there. Have you seen what Russian players consider a tough defense? I wouldn’t want to pay in front of six Russian defensemen for all the rubles on earth …”
_________________

“Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Randy Jones was suspended for two games by the NHL on Monday for his hit on Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron over the weekend.

League disciplinarian Colin Campbell said he didn’t believe Jones intended to injure Bergeron when he drove him into the boards from behind during the first period of Philadelphia’s 2-1 win Saturday night in Boston, but that the Flyers defenceman delivered a “hard check to a player who was in a vulnerable position.”

I don’t remember the details of the hit (haven’t bothered to look it up on youtube), but it doesn’t sound like the extent of the injury was known at the time. Doesn’t sound like they knew he’d be out for the season. Only that an injury had occurred therefore it required further investigation and, ultimately, a 2 game suspension.

Look, I’m not saying things are perfect or even fair. I’m just saying, like it or not, the occurrence of an injury is ONE of many things looked at when reviewing these things. Often it’s “no harm, no foul” and “harm, well, let’s look at all the other factors.”

because the Toronto Syndicate loved that head shot, they showed it a million times on the Syndicate network and never remotely mentioned suspension…
watch the ROCKET movie…it explains why these things happen.

As much as I would have loved to have seen nothing additional happen to TK, I knew it would be at least 3 games. Loaf fans were screaming for blood and they got it.

Point was made about consistency and that is what this league lacks, in spades. Wander through the youtube videos and compare it to the number of games players have been suspended for what they did and then shake your head in amazement. Muttering “WTF” under your breath helps too.

I’ll take the 3 games and thank the Hockey Gods he didn’t (wrongly) receive more from the league…..

i think your missing the point here! yeah tommy k deserved a suspension but this is a litlle harsh considering it was his 1st time and hollweg makes a career out of those kind of hits and gets 2 games and randy jones puts a guy out for the season and gets 2 games? where’s the justice?

A fair suspension. 3 games, my prediction is right.
There’s no respect anymore among the NHL players as in the old days.
Let this be a lesson to everyone playing hockey.
Changes have to be made.
Now, let’s end this discussion for all and talk about the game with Ottawa tomorrow night.
Predictions anyone? Ottawa will be hungry as well!

I’ll repeat: “…they take severity of injury into account when handing out the discipline.” How exactly does that translate to injury = suspension?
The internet is far to black and white for a gray guy like me…

this is a bloody joke plain and simple 3 games come campbell wake up! the cheapshot artist hollweg goes around doing this all the time and he gets 2 games! some idiot leafs fan commented today that the next time we paly them he hopes that hollweg gets revenge! all as i told him is remember this name gorges laraque and a bloody and batter hollweg and we’ll see revenge!

The precedent that injury=suspension? It most certainly has not. If that were the case, Weight would have been suspended for his hit on Sutter.

Had Colin Campbell stated that Kostopoulous was suspended for a hit from behind, I would have been fine with it. But he states that the suspension is not because of the hit, but because of the result. That’s crap. Dangerous territory.

the NHL has always been anti habs! look at all the penalties the refs dole out to the habs. yeah it’s ok to hit Bergeron and he’s out for the season. then a nice player like Kostopoulos hits unintentionally Van Ryan, and he’s ONLY out for 1 month, and Kosto gets 3 games. damn the NHL. but look at the bright side. he’s not a top 9 forward. we can live without him for 3 games. If it’s Kovu or Tanguay then I’m really pissed. the habs better play 60 minutes tomorrow night and win, or else they’re just gutless with no heart, and don’t give a damn.

Hollweg taking a big time run at Pietrangelo a few weeks ago. A repeat offender only gets one game for this? Colon Campbell (spelled that way intentionally) needs to be fired along with Buttman, this is GARBAGE!!!!!

What a complete load of BS. “Chased him down”. Gimme a break. Makes this sound like the Bertuzzi/Moore incident.
Absolutely agree this is punishing the result not the action. It was a bang bang play.I still say there is no way in the millisecond from the time Van Ryn turned his back to the hit there is no way TK could have pulled up. If he had he simply wouldn’t have been doing his job.
I’m pissed.
Living in the TO area I thought the entitlement had gone from the Leafs…maybe so but not from the league’s perspective.

the nhl is a joke, i’m sorry, if this happened against say, the Jackets, TK would get one game, but, cause it was on vs the Leafs on HNIC, he gets 3. Christ look what Randy Jones did to Bergeron last year, he got 2 games for that…and Patrice was out the whole year…sigh…

didn’t randy jones only get 2 when he hit bergeron from behind and he missed most of last season. Or am i thinking of another flyer suspension? There were a bunch in philly last year so i may be mistaken.

In all honesty I don’t think this was a dirty hit. On the face of it is. Van Ryn did turn at the last minute and there was little TK could do. TV does not do justice the speed that these guys play at and there was no way TK could pull up. This was as Damian Cox wrote on his blog a “good play gone bad”. I thought the hit on AK46 by Sauer was far worse flying elbows and all. So on the face of it I would have supported a 1 game suspension to “appease”. Van Ryn also turned and looked and took it for granted that TK would pull up. 3 games is a joke. Earwig from Toronto should be up to 25 games as JimVinny put it….his hits are premeditated.
That’s all for this rant.

Read the NHL.com version, if you want a reason to become even angrier;

“Kostopoulos chased him down from behind and cross-checked Van Ryn face-first into the end boards” BS. There was no cross-check, and chased him down? WTF is that supposed to mean?

“While it is my determination that Kostopoulos did not deliver a check to an unsuspecting opponent, his actions caused injuries,” said NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. So basically, Colin, what your saying, is that there is nothing wrong with the hit, but we need to start suspending guys when their actions result in injury. Yep, that certainly sounds like a precedent we want to set. Good call, @$$hole.

It’s what we call putting one’s foot in one’s mouth. Will he keep Hollweg in the pressbox all season for fear of having to come out and defend him or fess up to his own suggestions of cutting the roster? Maybe he should bench Grabs for spearing since the refs couldn’t see it.